Residential and Commercial Architecture

Residential Remodel Projects

Remodels, the heart of our work for many years are a special challenge. How do you join the old with the new? How do you make a home that has a long history of partial remodels work again as a whole? It can be as simple as changing a single room: if that change allows the rest of the plan to work. In the 1930 North Berkeley project we removed one original bedroom, a counter intuitive idea, which gave us room for a new stair, this in turn allowed the existing basement to become a usable part of the house and a new master bedroom suite to be added above the main floor. By taking this keystone action the rest of the plan fell into place.

In our remodels we seek to create spaces that you will enjoy being in and living in. A good remodel increases the utility as well as value of a home.
We have enjoyed working on homes designed by noted architects of the past as well as the challenge of making usable space out of heretofore dirt filled crawlspace.

On this website we have presented three of our residential remodel projects to give a sample of what a remodel can do for a space.

1930 North Berkeley Remodel

This remodel and addition to a 1930 North Berkeley hillside home replaced a failing foundation, turned the basement into usable space, added a master bedroom suite and home office with bay views. The house had 1600 usable square feet before the addition and 3300 sq. ft. after by adding 1100 sq. ft. in floor area and 380 sq. ft. in footprint. The finished home has 4+ bedrooms, three full baths, art studio, living room, family room and patio overlooking a 3 bridge view.

From the street the home appears substantially the same as before the remodel except for a new stucco fence with planters on top. The bones of the home were good with a nice living room and dining room leading to a deck that overlooked the bay. The deck was rotting off so a patio was added in its place using the area below the deck for a new art studio which opens on the garden. The entry for the main floor bath was moved so that the toilet was no longer visible from the front door. One of the three existing bedrooms was sacrificed for a new stair hall which goes between the basement and new master bedroom suite on the 2nd floor. The kitchen and bathroom had not been altered since the house was built. The kitchen was left in the same place but completely redone eliminating the old small staircase to the basement and opening up to a new family room with 2 doors on the new patio. Upstairs the master bedroom and office where set facing the bay views and out of sight of the street. The roof of the new construction is a cylindrical vault with the interior of the curved ceiling covered in maple veneer plywood held in place by bronze ship decking screws. This roof form allowed the new construction to be only a foot and half higher than the existing house’s roof peak while making the interior feel spacious. The new 2nd floor contains a new bedroom, dressing room, bath, home office and attic room added under the existing roof at the front of the house.

To complete the project the garden was redone adding a series of terraces on the sloped back yard giving an illusion of more space than really exists on a small Berkeley lot.